Spreadsheet

When we say spreadsheets are the future of financial reporting, we’re not talking about just any spreadsheet. No one is saying that spreadsheet columns and rows are always pretty—things can get messy when you start to outgrow Excel—but suggesting that Excel can’t be used across the organization? That’s just ugly. Bernard Marr, author a book on big data in the enterprise, recent published a post on Forbes which he titled, “Excel Reporting: 5 Reasons It Is Bad For Business.” Some of those reasons are debatable — in Marr’s view, many employees outside of finance don’t like Excel, and can’t make sense of them – but others are laughable. This includes the notion that Excel spreadsheets aren’t easy to share or that they can’t store historical data. The whole point of using Excel as a front-end tool for an enterprise platform is based on the fact sharing and looking at historical data has never been easier. “Employees want to be included in discussions about overall business performance, and that means that key performance indicators and other data must be communicated to large groups of people at every level of the business,” he writes. “There’s nothing inherently wrong with spreadsheets; they’re excellent tools for many different jobs. But data visualization and data communication is not one of them.” Of course, spreadsheets don’t have to be the final mechanism by which strategic insights are presented to other parts of the business, but there’s no question that they can outperform almost anything else. In fact, this is a good time to note the power of Microsoft Excel in particular. Even though spreadsheets are often getting criticized in general, there are plenty of other companies trying to come up with an “Excel killer.” A recent post on Business2Community actually went through a detailed look at Excel vs. Google Sheets, for instance, and weighed everything from ease of use to security. The winner? Microsoft Excel! While Google Sheets does have all the basics and a few of the functionalities of Excel, it still has a long way to go in terms of versatility. As a native app, Microsoft Excel can do pretty much anything. You can get it to solve Sudoku puzzles for you, or even power a Tetris game. You can automate most of your work, and you can collect an unreal amount of data without any hiccups or crashes. Excel spreadsheets aren’t perfect. They don’t need to be – that’s why there are more sophisticated cloud-based CPM tools you can layer on top of them and bring value across the organization.

Finance pros say they can’t live without Excel – but the living could be even better with the right technology. Make this the motto for finance departments everywhere: It’s not about adding values in spreadsheets. Its about adding value through spreadsheets. A subtle difference, perhaps, but one that’s worth repeating following a rather scathing article about CFOs and their teams by CityAM, a free business daily published in London. Titled ‘It’s official – chief financial officers are just ‘over-hyped’ spreadsheet masters,’ the piece summarizes a recent survey of more than 700 CFOs as part of the recent FSN Modern Finance Forum, which suggested that the use of tools like Microsoft Excel aren’t necessarily being used in a way that helps move organizations forward: More than half of said they spent too much time on actually processing transactions. Two-thirds said they were drowning in data, failing to understand all the different facts and figures coming their way, with one in three admitting that they made business decisions based on nothing more than “gut feel”. This may sound like a bit of a contradiction at first. If spreadsheets are the main way CFOs manage data, shouldn’t they be able to act with more than mere instinct? Of course, the volume of data coming their way may mean they’re not sure how to properly organize it within spreadsheets as they use them today, or connect it to higher-end corporate performance management systems that could help identify the data that matters most. Rodger Howell, a principal for PwC’s Strategy&, specializing in strategy and operations, suggested in a recent LinkedIn post that this isn’t just a culture shift for CFOs but everyone they work with. “Finance professionals tend to be most comfortable with a spreadsheet in front of them. Our latest finance benchmark study outlines an instance of a business partner asking ‘what’s my job?’ after his spreadsheets had been taken away,” he writes. “The finance director’s reply was that the ‘health of the business is in your hands,’ so your job is to ‘help the business develop plans, rather than just produce and present information.’” Howell’s post is actually called “Canning the Spreadsheet,” but let’s imagine an alternative scenario: the same conversation happens between a CFO and one of their team members, but instead of taking Excel way, that team member is able to amplify the power of spreadsheets to create more thoughtful recommendations for business planning purposes? Yes, the health of the business is in the finance department’s hands. Yes, they are often drowning in data. But the path to transcend those problems and move forward has never been clearer.   The post Why the Spreadsheet is Not to Blame appeared first on Blog | Vena Voice | Vena Solutions.  

A recent FEI study shows finance departments feel confident about their use of Excel. There’s no point in trying to pretend otherwise. If numbers don’t lie, why can’t some recognize the truth — at least about the connection between finance departments and spreadsheets? Data Analytics In Canada, a report recently issued by FEI Canada, is a perfect example of the difficulty some experts have in coming to terms with the way they think finance professionals should work and the way they actually do work. The statistic that jumps out right away — and raises alarm bells for some — is that 92% of those surveyed say they use spreadsheets as their primary analytics tool. The study was covered by The Globe & Mail newspaper, which interviewed the CFO of SAP Canada, Arthur Gitajn, who immediately suggested (as you might expect from a maker of high-end enterprise software) that his peers need to evolve their thinking. “There’s something inherently wrong with [relying on] the spreadsheet,” he said in the article. “It limits a CFO’s, and a company’s ability to know where data has come from and what to do with the information in all those columns.” Here’s what gets buried, though: only one in 10 of those in the FEI Canada study said they have ditched spreadsheets completely, and only one from that sub-group said they were satisfied with the analytics they are currently able to do. Contrast that with the spreadsheet aficianados, the majority of whom described their analytics and reporting capabilities as very good or at least average. The Best of Both Worlds Even though Excel’s power and omnipresence in the finance department is undeniable, it’s not without its shortcomings. If there was one criticism of spreadsheets that’s worth taking into consideration, it was in this paragraph: At some organizations, the use of spreadsheets remains pervasive, even among very large enterprises. Gerard McInnis, Partner, Valuations, at EY, observed that one client has one million active spreadsheets tracking different sources of information within the organization. “We’re seeing this is an issue with all of our clients, where they have to backstop their accounting and formal ERP systems with spreadsheets,” he said. “There’s a disproportionate amount of manual effort.” No arguments here. Manual work is the biggest barrier to innovative thinking and strategy. That’s why it makes all kinds of sense to enhance analytics and reporting capabilities with the right corporate performance management tools. If most finance departments are already confident in how they work with that data on the front-end, though, why shake it? If spreadsheets are everywhere already and they already offer a certain degree of analytics, better to build on that instead. That’s the truth many adhere to and that more people may need to hear. The post Let’s All Stop Fighting the Spreadsheet Stats appeared first on Blog | Vena Voice | Vena Solutions.  

Excel’s growth into other forms of analytics are a good reminder of why it will remain a foundational element in corporate finance and elsewhere. For a long time, the kinds of tools needed for “creative” types versus “business” types were pretty distinct. Those working in finance roles, obviously, would be drawn to calculators or spreadsheets, while those working in journalism or other forms of storytelling could probably function with little more than some word processing software. Those lines, however, are starting to blur. A good example is Finding Stories in Spreadsheets, a new book from veteran editor and reporter Paul Bradshaw, who tries to teach his peers about the ways Excel could become a key part of making headline news. Crunching data that the public might not understand or have the time to pursue, for instance, could help explain everything from crime rates to government spending. The book’s introduction is worth thinking about for those who use Excel for any kind of analysis, however: I’ve yet to meet a spreadsheet that didn’t have a story to tell. More often than not, they are bursting with those stories. Some have stories of success and (often more interestingly) failure. Others can hold a mirror up to ourselves, and tell stories about where we’ve been, and where we’re going; how we’ve changed, and how we’ve stayed the same. The key to all these stories, as with all sources, is knowing what questions to ask. When Stories Lift Off If the scenarios outlined in Bradshaw’s book aren’t inspiring enough, consider a recent exercise that has been suggested to high school teachers by the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Lab: using Microsoft Excel to model the velocity of the Dawn satellite mission that was launched back in 2007. “Students reinforce their knowledge of Newton’s Laws by applying them to a real-world problem: determining the velocity and distance traveled by a hypothetical spacecraft similar to Dawn, and graphing the data they generate,” the lab says. If kids in a classroom are using spreadsheets to explore those kinds of questions, just imagine the possibilities for those using Excel for revenue planning or financial consolidation. The only difference for business users, of course, is that enterprise-grade database capabilities could help ensure you can pursue those questions in the most meaningful way. At the end of the day, however, it’s about how you weave those answers into a story that’s compelling and can influence your company’s strategic direction. The post How Spreadsheets Can Make you a Storyteller appeared first on Blog | Vena Voice | Vena Solutions.

When baseball season starts each Spring, it doesn’t take long for die-hard fans to start donning caps, talking about their favourite players or, most importantly, defending their team from pre-emptive criticism. Surprisingly, finance experts treat Excel spreadsheets much the same way. But unlike the passionate disparity between rival teams like the Red Sox and the Yankees, virtually everyone in the finance world agrees that Excel is the only team to support.  Not long ago, for example, a web site called Financial Planning published one of those articles you often see lately that suggest Excel spreadsheets are too simplistic to offer real strategic value. The response from advisors was so immediate, so volatile and ultimately so thoughtful that the publication felt it had no choice but to offer a follow-up piece, “Are You On Team Excel or Not?” that highlighted the best reader reactions. Some of these comments are well worth examining by those leading finance teams who are reaching a decision point around their future use of Excel. Take this one: If you really know Excel well, you can out do most of the financial planning software and maintain control. By knowing it well, I mean being an advanced user that understands pivot tables, use of macros, programming in visual basic and being able to integrate monte carlo simulation. Excel is an extraordinarily powerful tool if you know how to use it. I would add to this that most clients do not care for detailed analysis and want to have simple answers that make sense. The only nitpick here is that detailed analysis does not have to come at the expense of simplicity. In fact, the best approach – whether it’s accountants to CFOs who want to bring real value to their customers or stakeholders — is to ensure that the tools they use reduce complexity while offering insight. Besides simplicity, what anyone looking at data values most is accuracy. That’s where the idea financial applications that connect structured source systems to front-end tools becomes really powerful. To put it another way, it’s the difference between simply using Excel and using Excel as a platform.  This was something a writer on Forbes noted almost a year ago, talking about the way Excel is becoming a conduit to information stored in ERP, for example. “These types of add-in technologies help Excel do more than ‘simple’ spreadsheet functionality,” the piece said. By all means, be a member of Team Excel (we all are!). As corporate performance management becomes more sophisticated, however, there should be even more for finance professionals of every kind to cheer about. The post What Will Make ‘Team Excel’ Even More Boisterous appeared first on Blog | Vena Voice | Vena Solutions.

When you hear the name J.K. Rowling, you probably think “Harry Potter,” “best-selling author” and possibly “imaginative.” The surprising thing is, you could just as accurately think “enterprise business,” “forecasting” and “spreadsheets.” After all, Rowling’s success as a writer is on an order of magnitude, from a financial perspective, that plenty of businesses only wish they had attained. And as a recent article on Radio Times recently revealed, she approached her work with the kind of granular planning that isn’t far removed from the average finance department. The article showed a spreadsheet – handwritten in ink, on looseleaf paper – that breaks down all the elements that went into Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. “It details how she worked out what to do with various plot threads, from the mysterious prophesy that lurked in the department of mysteries to the burgeoning love story between the Boy Who Lived and Cho Chang,” the article said. “It’s a lesson in novel planning, and an amusing insight into the mind of the acclaimed author.” It’s also a good example of how spreadsheets are not merely a solid tool for itemizing data but for thinking through its implications and solving complex problems. Rowling might have made her life a little easier had she used a real spreadsheet program, like Excel, to more easily manipulate the various elements of her novel, but the point is this: if one woman can work this way to generate millions in sales, why couldn’t a company that combines Excel with more powerful CPM capabilities do the same? After all, Excel spreadsheets appeal to a very human need for getting organized, laying out the variables in a simple manner and making changes as required. Pope Francis as CFO In most cases, unfortunately, spreadsheets only enter the picture when things go wrong and there’s no easy way to obtain data or to analyze processes informed by data. We’re not just talking about modern-day enterprises here. It even happens at century-old organizations like The Vatican, where, as a result of reliable data, “new rules will put more spreadsheets into the saint-making process,” according to a blog post on NPR. While you might think that selecting someone to be canonized would be entirely about spiritual reflection, there is a lot of donations involved in funding the research necessary to prove who’s deserving. According to two recently-published books, Pope Francis is cracking down on the lack of reporting that currently takes place: “Many postulators — the people who spearhead the canonization of a given candidate for sainthood — weren’t keeping track of how the money was spent. No budgets, no expense reports, no financial statements.” This isn’t meant to be a sermon, but the Catholic Church is demonstrating that it’s never too late to put the processes, the information and even the technology in place to make better decisions. What it does take is a committed vision, whether you’re an author, a Pontiff or the CFO of a major company. Without it, you haven’t got a prayer. The post Harry Potter and the Spreadsheets that Told His Future appeared first on Blog | Vena Voice | Vena Solutions.

When the senior management team isn’t happy with the numbers that come out of the finance department — and this is bound to happen every now and then — there’s probably a temptation to say something along the lines of, “What do you want us to do? Paint you a pretty picture?” But unless you’re, that’s hard to do using an Excel spreadsheet. Horiuchi is a 75-year-old Japanese artist recently profiled on CNTV for the work he’s been doing the past 15 years with Excel, the same tool finance departments have relied on for decades. His award-winning landscapes can be attributed in part to the fact that  Excel was preinstalled on his PC.   “It’s a sense of achievement when I draw something I like. It motivates me to draw another and then another. And it continues,” Horiuchi said told the TV station. The Creative Impulse in Finance Of course, finance teams have to use Excel for more traditional purposes, but that doesn’t mean they might not be equally motivated to produce something creative. In fact, the increased integration of spreadsheets with corporate performance management applications, business intelligence software and other tools is bringing a wealth of information to the forefront. Using that information strategically is predicated on how creative our minds work. Fortunately, there is every reason to believe that simple spreadsheets are a perfect way to unlock the imagination. This was a point made recently by a U.K. professor and author named John Naughton, who wrote about spreadsheets in The Guardian newspaper. He noted that entrepreneurs in the tech startup space almost always use spreadsheets to create “fantasy models” of what they’re trying to build. But that’s only one example: Years ago, I began to wonder if the popularity of spreadsheets might be due to the fact that humans are genetically programmed to understand them. At the time, I was teaching mathematics to complete beginners . . . The moment one said “let x be the number of apples”, their eyes would glaze and one knew they were lost. But the same people had no problem entering a number into a spreadsheet cell labelled “Number of apples”, happily changing it at will and observing the ensuing results. In other words, they intuitively understood the concept of a variable. The rise of analytics means there are more variables than ever before to consider, and finance departments have many creative challenges ahead of them. They may never create something as beautiful as a Tatsuo Horiuchi painting, but they might achieve something more important: an ability to show their senior leadership team the art of the possible. The post Inspirational Excel Spreadsheet Creativity for Finance Pros Everywhere appeared first on Blog | Vena Voice | Vena Solutions.  

When someone is really absorbed in studying an Excel spreadsheet, you could almost mistake them for being hypnotized. For a professional hypnotist like Paul McKenna, however, Excel is captivating for reasons that have little to do with financial spreadsheets, sales or marketing. The 52-year old raised eyebrows in a recent interview with The Guardian newspaper where he confessed that he took a highly unusual route to deciding who would make an ideal choice of life companion: I’ve dated a lot of beautiful women. A friend pointed out I didn’t actually like them, and advised me to make an Excel spreadsheet to find out who I really loved. It came down to Kate [Davey, his long-time PA]. We’d worked together for many years; thankfully she felt the same way and now we’re engaged. I feel I’ve learned more with her in the last three years than the rest of my life. Using Excel he was able to really get at the core of what McKenna was looking for—and now, he has that omnipresent tool to thank for his happily ever after. The Rule (Not the Exception) Of course, you could reduce McKenna’s use of spreadsheets as an extreme or even bizarre approach to decision-making. But is it? Writing in The Telegraph, Radhika Sanghani notes that there have been plenty of others who have used Excel to organize and hone in on major life choices. She includes herself as a spreadsheet addict of sorts over the years. “Job offers were contemplated via lists of pros and cons, while one very extensive system saw me work out what I really wanted to do with my future by awarding my skills and interests points – and then adding them all up,” she said. “I’ve written down seemingly-impossible life goals, and then broken them into achievable chunks – some of which I have gone on to do, and some of which have ended up deleted, or simply been transferred into the following year’s agenda.” To someone experienced in finance, this is not that far removed from what a lot of companies do in terms of forecasting and revising what they see coming down the road. There are similar use cases in an ever-increasing array of functions across the enterprise. Though Sanghani admits spreadsheets won’t appeal to everyone thinking about, say, marriage, they appeal to an innately human need for getting organized, laying out the variables in a simple manner and making changes as required. This is worth keeping in mind the next time someone predicts Excel spreadsheets are a poor choice of tool, or something that needs to be replaced. Because as long as humans need a versatile and efficient way to organize and evaluate data, Excel will reign. The post These Extreme Use Cases of Excel Spreadsheets Just Prove Why They’ll Survive appeared first on Blog | Vena Voice | Vena Solutions.  

Recently I read an article that asked the question, “Is it time for your company to move away from spreadsheets for financial consolidation?” It’s a question that has been asked multiple times before, driving many software vendors to develop solutions that take you away from spreadsheets. In fact, if you look at the consolidation systems landscape, this has become more of the norm than the exception. This led me to think of all of my experiences with such software solutions and my experiences with spreadsheets. If you think about it, taking a spreadsheet program away from an accountant would be stripping him of what is arguably the most powerful tool in his number-crunching arsenal. That being said, spreadsheets on their own aren’t the best solution forever. They can be cumbersome, difficult for data centralization, and can lead to version control issues—it is also quite a chore to consolidate data across spreadsheets. While all of these things may be true in the context of separate, disparate spreadsheets, the fact is that  no accountant or finance person is ever going to give spreadsheets up. If you consider that companies often spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on consolidation software that takes their finance people out of Excel, you would expect that these people would learn to live without their precious spreadsheets. After all, if a company is going to invest that kind of cash into such a terrific solution, it better do just that. Dump your spreadsheets and learn something completely new – that’s the mantra of these solutions. Yet this is a complete fallacy. In performing a bit of research, we found a very interesting statistic: while accounting departments attempt to ramp up on these consolidation tools, in the end 70% of these users still relied on their spreadsheets to support their consolidation processes. 70%! That was astonishing, but clearly not surprising. Accountants are not going to have their spreadsheets yanked away from them. So with all the investment in software licensing, training, implementation and support, there was no turning back from the universal software tool of the accountant. So this begs the question – why move away from spreadsheets at all for your financial consolidation? If you are already vested in such an environment, what is the point in investing in new software that forces you to reinvent the wheel? At Vena Solutions, we’ve taken this concept to the other extreme. We’ve created a business solution (including consolidation) that centralizes your data using a state-of-the-art, in-memory database and that leverages your existing Excel spreadsheets. We’ve even created and automated processes that perform the most critical of consolidation tasks – including, currency translation, automatic intercompany eliminations, and single and recurring adjusting journal entries. If you need more complex processes, such as non-controlling interests and handling multiple accounting principles, Vena’s consolidation solution can do those with ease. As far as workflow, approvals and audit trails, all of these are already built into Vena’s solution. Best of all, you get to have your cake and eat it too – you continue to use the tool you know and love, Microsoft Excel. So before you invest in a solution that tries to take your accountants away from spreadsheets, remember this – no amount of investment is going to force them to give up a tool that they are basically connected at the hip with. With Vena there will never come a time to move away from spreadsheets for financial consolidation.